Could it be that the “Internet” has become some sort of sentient being with us as its interconnected “Neurons” , sensory apparatus and limbs?
Does it organizes in ways biological organisms do, collecting information, learning, growing, adapting?

I have heard that before (I think it was from Sam Harris), but I don’t know what to think of it. If the internet is becoming sentient because it absorbs information, you may as well speculate if a mirror can see becuase it absorbs light. There is more to vision than adsorbing light just like there is more to consciesness than learning.

Perhaps the term pseudo-sentient may be appropriate. It may well become as intelligent as humans with far greater knowledge, but IMO, so far there has been no instance of unprogrammed spontaneous action, i.e. “will”.

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Could it be that the “Internet” has become some sort of sentient being with us as its interconnected “Neurons” , sensory apparatus and limbs?
Does it organizes in ways biological organisms do, collecting information, learning, growing, adapting?

Stupid Idea, or possible?

I don’t know if it’s possible, but it’s terrifying.

That is basically what happened in the movie “Terminator’

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“I am back from Syria. I believe I have enlightened ISIS to the error of their ways. They are all vegan now.” - Godfrey Elfwick

Could it be that the “Internet” has become some sort of sentient being with us as its interconnected “Neurons” , sensory apparatus and limbs?
Does it organizes in ways biological organisms do, collecting information, learning, growing, adapting?

No. The internet is not and will never become sentient. It is piles of data with paths leading from one pile to other piles. You’re talking science fiction with 99% of the emphasis on the fiction part.

The internet doesn’t have senses, so I don’t think it can have sentience.

It is morally as bad not to care whether a thing is true or not, so long as it makes you feel good, as it is not to care how you got your money as long as you have got it. Edmund Way Teale, Circle of the Seasons

Could it be that the “Internet” has become some sort of sentient being with us as its interconnected “Neurons” , sensory apparatus and limbs?
Does it organizes in ways biological organisms do, collecting information, learning, growing, adapting?

No. The internet is not and will never become sentient. It is piles of data with paths leading from one pile to other piles. You’re talking science fiction with 99% of the emphasis on the fiction part.

The internet doesn’t have senses, so I don’t think it can have sentience.

Me thinks that is hasty and premature.

We can’t even define sentience, let alone exclude something from the possibility of ever becoming sentient.
If we compare a computer to a human brain, there is not a lot of difference in function.
a computer processes information, just like us.
a computer senses all kinds of things, some things better than us.
a computer analyzes and determines solutions.

Granted, all this is still rudimentary at this stage, but AI is a very active field of research and I can certainly imagine ‘autonomous” computers which can act independent of human direction.

The internet doesn’t have senses, so I don’t think it can have sentience.

I think this is important. It’s hard to imagine and form of consciousness apart from sensory input.

But the internet has a constant stream of sensory input from all kinds of souces. The problem so far is that these collectors are not interfaced with each other. Computers look, listen, smell, hear, sense, (and dare I say at much more detail than humans). Our sensory organs are but of average quality compared to other organisms.

IMO, the one major difference between human thought and computer thought is filtering pertinent data and converting it to symbolic messages which the computer can use for selfpreservation and advancement.

How about, autonomous is acting on your own while sentient is knowing that you are?
Cap’t Jack

And what is it you are that a computer cannot be taught to know about itself? What is the difference between saying “I am a man, not an animal” and “I am a computer, not a man”.

It is true that a computer will never identify itself as a human, but what difference does that really make? What about every other living thing on earth, are they all sentient and in what way is that different than a sentient computer?

IMO, the problem lies in that we always try to make a computer to act like a human. Why is that?